Conor McGregor to appear in Brooklyn court charged with three counts of assault

Conor McGregor is to appear in court in Brooklyn on Friday afternoon faced with three charges of assault and one count of felony criminal mischief.

Irish sports star Conor McGregor left a Brooklyn police station in handcuffs on Friday morning as he was brought to court to face assault charges. The UFC fighter had handed himself over to police in the 78th precinct in Prospect Heights on Thursday night around 11 pm as NYPD announced they wished to speak to him regarding earlier violent events in the Barclays Center.

On Thursday afternoon, videos emerged of McGregor, 29, storming the UFC 233 press conference being held in Barclays before Saturday’s New York fight night. With the fighters packed into buses and vans ready to leave the venue, two members of McGregor’s team at The Mac Life allowed him into a private parking bar where he began to throw barriers and a hand dolly at the vehicles, smashing windows and injuring the fighters sitting inside.

Accompanied by a group of around 20 men, McGregor fled the scene shortly afterward. UFC President Dana White confirmed later on Thursday afternoon that the NYPD wished to speak to him. A member of the Dublin man’s group and fellow MMA fighter Cian Cowley has also been charged with assault and criminal mischief. In total, McGregor faces three charges of assault and one count of felony criminal mischief.

As a result of the attack and injuries sustained, the UFC has been forced to pull three fights from its Saturday line-up. Both lightweight Michael Chiesa and flyweight Ray Borg were deemed unfit to fight because of facial lacerations and corneal abrasions.

McGregor's teammate Artem Lobov had been pulled from the fight sheet earlier on Thursday because of his own involvement in the incident. It is believed that McGregor had flown to New York because of an altercation between his friend Lobov and lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov on Tuesday.

Nurmagomedov is one of two fighters who was set to contest for McGregor’s lightweight title on Saturday night. It had been announced earlier in the week that as McGregor has not fought within the UFC for two years, the belt would be put up for grabs once again. This revelation is believed to have added to the motive behind the Irishman’s actions on Thursday and he furthered displayed his anger at the announcement. It's since been announced that Nurmagomedov's opponent Holloway was unable to make the weight and can not fight.

Already something of a controversial love/hate figure at home and abroad, McGregor looked straight ahead as he was brought from the police station and fans heckled him from outside. Speaking to ESPN on Friday morning, UFC President Dana White claimed that other fighters may sue McGregor, no matter the outcome in court.

Having had a text messages conversation with McGregor, White said that the 29-year-old was not completely apologetic. He said the Irish fighter was "apologetic about the people he wasn't trying to hurt. But he felt the Khabib thing had to be done."

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